Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast

I picked up a load of herring the other day. I wouldn’t normally buy them at this time of year as it’s spawning season but when they’re in the dead & dying section at 10p a fish then they’re fair game.

Now the herring is a very fine fish but it can be improved upon. If I wasn’t heading for hospital I’d have gone down the rollmop route but instead I’m aiming for kippers.

The first task in making kippers is to kipper our fish – which has nothing to do with smoking. It’s splitting the fish down the back rather than the belly.

Ok – my other half isn’t a heads on fan and it won’t affect the flavour so as the red queen would say “off with their heads!”

Next the nascent kippers need salting – this is usually done with brine but I’m in a rush so I’m dry salting for twenty minutes. The salt’s rinsed off, the fish wiped and left to air dry for an hour.

For smoking I’m using oak dust from wine barrels, cold smoked overnight they get a subtle tan and a delicate sweet aroma, fresh out of the smoker they make a perfect weekend breakfast.